Federal prosecutors revealed their decision Friday afternoon in a one-paragraph filing in federal court in New Orleans. The filing does not explain the basis for their decision.

Three current NOPD officers -- Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius, and Officer Anthony Villavaso -- and a former officer, Robert Faulcon, were charged in late July with violating the civil rights of two men by fatally shooting them on the bridge that day. The charge carries a maximum penalty of death.

With the death penalty off the table, the officers now face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. The trial is scheduled to begin in June 2011.

The court filing marks the end of a lengthy decision-making process within the Justice Department. Attorneys for the officers traveled to Washington late last month to lobby a Justice Department committee and argue that the death penalty was not warranted.

Eric Hessler, an attorney for Gisevius, said the government's decision shows that prosecutors are taking the chaotic post-hurricane landscape into consideration.

"It's indicative that they are at least paying attention to the circumstances under which these allegations occurred," Hessler said. "We think the circumstances are extremely important."

Attorneys Frank DeSalvo and Roger Kitchens, who represent Bowen and Villavaso, respectively, both said the government's decision was not a surprise.

"The government once in awhile does something that makes sense," DeSalvo added. "They aren't going to get a conviction here. And they would be especially embarrassed to not get a conviction in a death penalty case."

Two other sergeants, Arthur Kaufman and Gerard Dugue, are charged with participating in a wide-scale cover-up of the bridge shooting, which allegedly included a planted gun, fabricated witnesses and falsified police reports.

Kaufman faces a maximum penalty of 120 years in prison, and Dugue faces up to 70 years, if convicted. Five other current or former NOPD officers have already made deals with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to roles in the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings. Ronald Madison, 40, and James Brissette, 17, died from police gunfire, while four others were wounded.

Federal death penalty cases against cops are extremely rare. In fact, there is only one former police officer in the country who is on federal death row now: former NOPD officer Len Davis. Davis ran a drug-protection racket in the mid-1990s and ordered the murder of a woman who filed a complaint to his superiors.

Sixty-nine people have been sentenced to death in federal court since 1988, when Congress restored the death penalty. Of that group, three people, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, have been executed.

The Danziger case is one of three pending civil rights cases filed this year against NOPD officers. Each case carried death-eligible charges.

Prosecutors chose not to seek a death sentence in the case of David Warren, a former officer charged with fatally shooting Henry Glover outside a strip mall in Algiers in the days after Katrina. He was charged in early June; four other officers face lesser charges in that case.

The Justice Department has not released its death-sentence decision in the case of Officer Melvin Williams, who is accused of fatally beating Raymond Robair in July 2005 and filing a false police report.